Tom Harris, also known as The Hill Country Gardener, is a Master Gardener certified by the State of Texas, a Master Pruner certified by the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and a founder and volunteer for the Gardening Volunteers of South Texas (GVST).

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Citrus Trees

If your citrus tree(s) bit the dust during the winter months (a lot of them did) now is the time to replace the one(s) you lost. For lemons get the Meyer variety and plant it in the largest pot you can move later. For limes, get the Mexican lime and plant it the same way.

If your tree(s) actually made it through the winter, they should have new leaves by now. If you don’t see at least some buds on the stems, it probably didn’t make it. It’s best to pull it out and put in a new one to get the process started again.

For tangerines, oranges, and grapefruits, get the recommended variety for the type you want and plant them in the ground. If there are any little green fruits on these baby trees, pull them off. The tree is too little to have fruit this year. Most citrus trees take 3-5 years to be mature enough to handle fruit.

If you don’t have a clue what varieties of fruit trees to get, write me and I can send you a list that came from Texas A&M’s website. It has lots of good information for you.

Drip Irrigation

No, this doesn’t mean throwing water on your spouse!!! Shame on you. With the emphasis today on water conservation, and with water restrictions only days away, you really ought to consider putting in a little time and a little money to add drip systems to your garden beds. You will help the aquifer, any streams around, your garden plots, and maybe save some money in the long run.

Drip irrigation is the most effective, efficient and easiest irrigation system you can do. It’s so efficient that you will probably only use about $10-12 worth of water to water one 4’ x 12’ garden bed for a whole year.

Drip irrigation works in any kind or size of bed that you may have. There are basically three types of drip irrigation…two of the emitter (dripper) type and the leaky-hose type.

The leaky hose is the easiest. All you do is “snake” it around your plants and hook it up to the hose. Let it barely drip for couple of hours and that’s it.

The emitter type is a little trickier. You only have to understand the parts; i.e., ¼” hose, tees, elbows, and stoppers. Other than that, all you need is a pair of scissors.

Go to the home improvement center or nursery and buy a roll of plain ¼ in. black irrigation hose, a roll of ¼ in. hose with drippers every 6 or 12 inches, a package of tees, a package of elbows, a package of stoppers for the ends, and a connector to attach the ¼ in. hose to the garden hose.

Depending on where the garden hose goes, cut a piece of the plain 1/4 hose long enough to reach the bed. Push one end of the ¼” into the hose connector and put a tee on the other end. Cut two pieces plain ¼ hose about 18” long and one about 1” long. Attach one end of one of the long ones to one side of the tee and put an elbow in the other end of it. Attach one end of the short piece to the other side of the original tee and put another tee on the other end. Attach the other long piece to this last tee and put an elbow in the end. It should look like this. |_________|________| To each of the elbows and the tee, attach a piece of the hose with drippers long enough to reach the end of the bed. Put a stopper (called a “goof plug” by the industry folks) in the end of each one or fold the end over and tie it with a piece of wire or a zip-tie.

The fittings should slip right into the ¼” hose, but if they don’t go on easily, warm the end of the hose just a little with some warm water, a hair dryer, or just lay it out in the sunshine for about 5 minutes. Twist and push the hose all the way past the barb on the fitting up to the shoulder on the fitting. Once this is done, it’s hard to get the hose off—it’s that good.

Now take a couple of clothes hangers and cut six pieces of wire about 8” long. Bend a shepherd’s crook about ½” long on one end of each. Push it down over the ends of the dripper hoses at each end to anchor them to the ground to keep it from rolling back up. That’s it. You got yourself a drip system.

Hook it up the garden hose and be sure the system doesn’t leak anywhere it isn’t supposed to leak. Just barely turn on the faucet—only about 1/8 of a turn will be enough. More is not better. Go out look at the end of the dripper hoses. If water is dripping out of the last dripper on each hose, That’s it. YOU DID IT! TADA!!!

Leave it on for about 2 hours to get 1 gallon at each dripper (the industry standard is ½ gallon per hour). After 2 hours, you can stick your finger into the soil down to the second joint and you’ll feel moisture. That’s enough. The neat thing is that you didn’t wet anything but the soil where the roots are and that’s the safest, most economical way to water. See how you’ll save money?

I actually figured out how much water it would take for a 4 x 12 bed. If you water it every 3 days for 2 hours, it takes less than 5,000 gallons of water to water it for 10 months (a whole year in most gardening situations) and the cost of that is somewhere around $10-12. That’s a bargain, my friend.